Honey Cake2
Sep 16th 2009MargeAfters & Food & Recipes & Jewish & Rosh HaShonah
Rosh HaShonah, the Jewish New Year will soon be here (this Friday night actually), and as is customary I have honey cake for a sweet year. This recipe is more reminiscent of traditional ‘lekach’ honey cake and is much richer than my usual one. I have adapted it slightly from the original and hope you give it a try.
Ingredients (Imperial measures given as this recipe is very old):
- 1 lb self raising flour
- 3 eggs (size 2, if small then use another egg)
- 1/2 lb clear honey
- 1 1/2 cups lemonade
- 1/2 lb granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup of vegetable oil
- 2 oz melted margarine
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp allspice
- 1 tsp whisky
Method:
- Pre-heat the oven to Gas Mark 5 for 25 minutes.
- Sift the flour twice. This will incorporate plenty of air. For this recipe I used a third wholemeal and two thirds plain flour. You can use all plain if you wish.
- Mix the honey and sugar together in a large bowl. I suggest you use a wooden spoon rather than electric beaters. It will give you a mini-workout but gives a better result.
- Add the oil and melted margarine (melt the margarine in the microwave for 30 seconds), and mix well.
- Beat the eggs with an electric whisk if you have (or go for good old ‘elbow grease’ ) and add them to the mixture a little at a time, making sure they are well mixed in without over beating.
- Add half the lemonade (you may not need all of it) the spices, and whisky and mix in.
- Fold in the flour. This will take time and may look lumpy but it will go smooth if you keep at it.
- Take two small to medium shallow sponge tins (or use two 1 lb loaf tins), and pour in equal amounts of cake mixture. A shallow tin will allow the cake to cook quickly and evenly, a deeper one will need much longer in the oven.
- Bake the cake for about 45 minutes in the middle of the oven. After45 minutes check the cake with a knife. If it needs more baking then lightly cover the cake with tin foil and give it another 15 minutes or so.
I would like to wish everyone a Shana Tova, a Happy New Year 5770!
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- lekach close up
- me and the lekach (honey cakes)


